“Depending on the opponents, if they’re tough guys, well known, I think I will get the chance of fighting for the belt in two or three fights. I want a hard adversary to show everything what I couldn’t in the past fight, all my training. I made tremendous errors versus Nate. There was excess from my side and too much confidence in the beginning, that is the most dangerous part of the fight. There was also a technical mistake. I kicked three times of the same way. I threw a kick and went towards him when I had to wait to exchange some hits and put him to walk behind. I wanted to land a kick and made the big mistake.”

Former undefeated submission deity Demian Maia (10-1) reflects on his first round knockout loss to middleweight contender Nate Marquardt at UFC 102 back on August 29 in Portland. The Brazilian was headed for a possible title shot opposite Anderson Silva until a “Great” knockout punch floored him — and any immediate title opportunities.

I would still put Maia up there in the top 5 UFC Middleweight's. A coule more wins and he could still get a shot, especially if he kees finishing top level oponents. Id like to see him face Okami, Gouveia, Belcher, Akiyama etc.

I would agree with him if his next two or three opponents are top tier MW's. Even so he would need a few people to take loses as well. Have always been a fan even before he was fighting MMA, best of luck to him.

I(t's a good thing to go after it and all but now he's gonna have to put together 2 solid wins to get in consideration for a title shot. Not to mention, the UFC 185lb division has gotten stronger lately. Maybe Belcher vs. Maia....Belcher is not as tough a fighter as Nate but still poses a threat with submissions and strking.

I have no doubt that he will be back, the guy suffered a freak KO from arguably a top 5 world MW....not to mention the terror he caused the division just before that...a five fight win streak all by submission, most of those are ground fighters, please! He'll be back in contention just like he said, after he gets 2 or more wins over good opponents.

I have no doubt that he will be back, the guy suffered a freak KO from arguably a top 5 world MW....not to mention the terror he caused the division just before that...a five fight win streak all by submission, most of those are ground fighters, please! He'll be back in contention just like he said, after he gets 2 or more wins over good opponents.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying here...I dunno about a freak KO, though. The kick he threw looked absolutely awful and Marquardt trained to capitalize on that specific mistake. If training your ass off for months on end and then putting that training to use when the right situation presents itself is considered a "freak KO" then I guess it was.. but I don't personally want to take anything away from Marquardt by saying that.

Not to be a total dick and call you specifically out as though you did these things, but I hear the terms "lucky punch" "lucky submission" and "freak KO" and it's something I have to confront when I see. There are certainly some exceptions, but for the most part I don't feel any fighter who has put in the time and effort can get lucky like that. The worst was when people were saying Frank Mir got a "lucky submission" on Brock Lesnar. How does that even make the slightest amount of sense?? Like he was doing an air-knee bar and Lesnar just happened to trip right into it? /RANT OFF

I hear you....but never did I hear Nate or any of the guys at Jackson's Camp state that he was training for months for that specific kick. I'm not taking anything from Nate either though, when I say freak KO I just mean that it's something that happens so quick and crazy that it makes it hard to believe that it could happen more than once like that. I don't mean that Nate couldn't KO him again, just that the way that it happened was freaky.

Cool, man. I wasn't trying to insinuate that you're an idiot or anything like that or that you even believed in lucky punches.. I just misunderstood what you were saying and it's just something I try to make a point to confront because these guys deserve the respect they've earned with their hard work.

I don't know if he ever said anything about that specific kick, but I know I did read an article or watch an interview in which Marquardt said they knew he had holes in his striking game and they had trained to capitalize on those holes. Not sure if it was the specific kick, but clearly it was a hole. I do agree that it was a freaking nasty KO and I'm really glad Nate was professional enough to let up after he had obviously damn near knocked Maia's head off

maia is a great fighter but there is much more rounded fighters out there who can beat him like nate just did.He needs 2 or 3 wins in a row to get bak to the spider.Im not sure he is the top tier i know he is top 5 but id say henderson,franklin,bisping,mardquardt are all in front of him still